The FPS market is flooded with epic set-piece moments, explosions, and meat-head characters. Halo: Reach follows that same formula, but in space. Seriously, this game is all about shooting all kinds of alien creatures called “The Covenant” and clearing one area to do the same in the next. Pass that up and you have the typical online modes.

Halo: Reach is a prequel to all of the other Halo Games and you control another nameless hero in a standard shooter. Those of you looking to play as Master Chief, look elsewhere or try to make your character look like him and later unlock his voice. Reach is a planet where our squad of heroes reside. Reach is being attacked by Covenant (antagonist race) soldiers. So the story is, kill and run off the Covenant. It’s pretty simple.

Halo: Reach isn’t the best looking game. I am not stating that it is ugly by any means. It just looks like your standard FPS that cuts down the grapics to run at so many frames per second. In many ways this is a good thing as nobody likes slow down in their gaming.

I have never been much of a Halo fan. I never hated it at all, it just wasn’t my deal. But, as the market shifts to (Usually at EWG we don’t compare games, but in this case it makes sense) Call of Duty and clones of COD, Halo seems much more fresh. It is a fresh breath from shooting a nameless “terrorist”.

In Reach, weapons aren’t nearly as varied as the other games in the series. Those of you looking to dual-wield guns, sorry, not in this Halo. The amount of guns has been cut down. Some of the series mainstays are still here.

The meat and potatoes of Halo: Reach is the online more, as it is with most shooters, and Halo is the grand daddy of online shooters. There are the standard affair team deathmatch, free-for-all, and capture the flag modes, but they all feel frantic. Also, there is a “horde mode” type game where you simply fight wave after wave of enemies and this gets challenging if you are a single-player like me.

Halo has always been known to have an iconic soundtrack and Reach only adds to that. The music is very epic and sometimes operatic. Sometimes it comes across as perfectly fitting for the moment and other times I simply think there are chanting monks somewhere.

Halo: Reach is a good game to get away from the monotony of the usual suspects in military shooters. Shooting aliens can be satisfying and sneak attacking other troops feels great. Add in frantic firefights where you need to find cover and you have a pretty memorable experience if you have been dealing with the typical shooter.